Catherine Skinner has won Australia’s third gold medal with victory in women’s trap

VICTORIA’S Catherine Skinner banishes the demons of a barren 2012 Olympics for our shotgun shooters with glorious trap gold in Rio.

Catherine Skinner celebrates her gold medal in the women’s trap.

VICTORIA’S Catherine Skinner overcame the mental demons of past championship failures and a tense sudden-death shoot-off to claim glorious Rio trap gold.

The daughter of a cattle farmer from country Victoria has become Australia’s first shooting gold medallist since Suzie Balogh won the same event in 2004.

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Australia’s shooters had endured a disastrous lead-in to Rio with internal battles, Court of Arbitration appeals and Michael Diamond’s dumping by Shooting Australia.

But the 26-year-old chemical engineering student banished that bitter entree to Rio by claiming shooting’s first medal of any kind since the Beijing Games.

First she had to nail two sudden-death shots against Canada’s Cynthia Meyer in a shoot-off to make the six-person semi-final.

Catherine Skinner celebrates her gold medal success.

Catherine Skinner stands proudly on the dais. Picture: AP Photo

Catherine Skinner gets a hug from Laetisha Scanlan. Picture: AP Photo

You’d have thought Laetisha won gold! (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Golden moment. Catherine Skinner throws her arms up in triumph. Picture: Getty Images

Catherine Skinner in action. Picture: AP

Then after making the gold medal play-off by missing just one of 15 shots, she started against New Zealand’s Natalie Rooney disastrously.

She missed her first and fourth shots to fall two targets behind, but when Rooney faltered she nervelessly nailed the last three clay targets to win by one shot.

At the Glasgow Commonwealth Games she had dominated qualifying before missing five finals targets as fellow Australian Laetisha Scanlan won gold after her own shoot-off victory.

Remarkably, 26-year-old Scanlan started the final as the highest qualifier before missing five finals targets as Skinner reversed that storyline exactly.

Catherine Skinner celebrates gold after a remarkable trap win. Mobbed by Laetisha Scanlan after her victory pic.twitter.com/Ab8sRAog4P

— Jon Ralph (@RalphyHeraldSun) August 7, 2016

A beautiful moment as our newest gold medallist Catherine Skinner is joined by her mum Anne. #OneTeam @ShootingAus pic.twitter.com/mBySb9dKKQ

— AUS Olympic Team (@AUSOlympicTeam) August 7, 2016

In the final Skinner’s shots were continually held up by a microphone malfunction and non-firing targets.

Somehow she turned that distraction into a positive as she iced the contest with nerves that had once failed her.

“This is kind of hard to describe. I was kind of relying on routine and just trying to breathe,’’ she said.

“Particularly when we just kept having issues with the microphone and no targets.

Catherine Skinner celebrates with the Aussie flag.

Catherine Skinner flanked by New Zealand's silver medallist Natalie Rooney and bronze winner Corey Cogdell of the United States. Picture: AP Photo

“In a way I got so frustrated I just wanted to see those little targets smash so it kind of worked out!

“It’s been a long process and I have been there before where I have fallen to pieces so it’s a learning curve and thankfully it’s paid off and I have got the medal.”

If Skinner was worried about nailing her targets in the shoot-off to reach that final, brother Craig felt a sense of calm.

“It’s about doing one target at the time. Apparently talking to my brother after it he was talking to my dad back home and he said, ‘I wasn’t stressed. Catherine doesn’t loose shoot-offs very much’.”

Skinner used the soothing tones of the John Butler Trio to settle her nerves before the gold medal match after the Commonwealth Games choke.

“I definitely learnt from that experience. For one I kept my (pre-contest) music going for a lot longer than I did over there. I was trying to block out the noise and ignore the whole crowd, as nasty as that was. You are here to compete and here to perform and this comes back at the end of it with this result.”

In the men’s trap qualification after 75 of 125 targets Adam Vella sits in 12th place on 69 shots, just two shots off the top six.

But Melbourne 17-year-old Mitch Iles hit just 20 of his first 25 targets in blustery conditions before recovering from last place to sit six targets off the final.

Originally published as Catherine Skinner has won Australia’s third gold medal with victory in women’s trap